


An Outlaws' Best Friend

by MudkipBrony



Series: Persona Western AU [9]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Western, Bandits & Outlaws, Campfires, Country & Western, F/M, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Headcanon, Personas are horses, Red Dead Redemption 2 Map, Shooting Guns, Western
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27880401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MudkipBrony/pseuds/MudkipBrony
Summary: In the Wild West there's only so many people a man can trust with his life.
Relationships: Kitagawa Yusuke & Sakura Futaba, Kitagawa Yusuke/Sakura Futaba
Series: Persona Western AU [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981138
Kudos: 7





	1. How Yusuke got his horse

August 1896

West Elizabeth

Great Plains

“Do you wonder what life would be like if you had a good parent?”

There were so many stars in the Great Plains, unlike in the Saint Denis where there were almost no stars. And it was silent, the only sounds coming from faraway places. At least until she spoke. _Reminiscing again I see?_

“Are you thinking about your uncle again?”

The girl across from him went silent. Had he not heard the crackle of the campfire before? Was his mind so far off among the stars he did not hear a thing? Yet her voice came through. Penetrating his thoughts like a bullet to the skull or a needle to the finger. How had it come to this? Yusuke is an outlaw, a dangerous criminal that civilians fear. A story in the paper about another robbery and all the lawmen left injured. Yet here he was, helping Futaba Sakura, a girl a year younger than he. Barely even adults they were. And yet they are wanted for adult crimes.

“Yes…” she admitted, “he was awful, and I don’t want to go back!”

“And you’ll never have to go back. Not if I have anything to say about it.”

Futaba stood up, from Yusuke's spot by the fire it almost looked like she _was_ the fire. “I’m heading to bed… goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Futaba.”

She went inside the tent and closed the flap. And that was that.

* * *

The next morning, they packed up and walked to the nearest town, it was more like a little city. Granted it would never be as big as Saint Denis, but it was nice to walk on brick roads again. The brick against his shoes brough a familiar feeling, his childhood, what little of it there was.

“What is this place?” Futaba asked.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a sign, he assumed whatever it said was the towns name. _All you have to do is read. So simple. Sens... Madarame could do it, Futaba can do it, so can you. What is this town’s name?_

“Blackwater. Gross,” Futaba commented.

“Blackwater, yes. I knew that,” He ~~lied~~ explained.

Futaba just gave him a look and the two kept walking through town. He kept messing with belt any chance he got, no exact reason why he did it. His gunslingers’ belt was probably his most prize possession. Futaba meanwhile clung to his side like a leech getting its meal.

“Woah!”

“What are you… magnificent…”

The petite girl had pulled him towards a wagon, an old thing had mold growing off the side and the wheels were worn and looked like they were about to snap. But the horse in front of the wagon… it was.

“I’ve never seen a horse like you!” Futaba said to the horse. She let go of her companion and held her hands in front of her, trying to calm the horse.

This horse was a beauty, a light grey hide with white splotches, like clouds in a grey sky. It was not a sickly horse but strong and young. A beautiful long white mane that glimmered in the sunlight. A powerful beast confined to work for a town that is seeping away all its life.

The horse let the orange haired girl touch its neck and she gently rubbed her hand across it. “What _are_ you? A Missouri Fox Trotter? You are one expensive boy if you are…” She whispered to the horse.

He did not like seeing a horse this powerful creature in captivity, forced to be the heart and soul of a town that didn't appreciate it. “Should we free him?”

She snapped her attention to the boy next to her. “Yeah! We have to free him! Cause some chaos!"

He reached to the side of his belt where he pulled his hunting knife from its sheath. He carefully cut the leather harness tying the horse to the wagon while Futaba kept a look out. “Hurry up, Inari. Someone's going to see us!"

While they weren't on main street there was a chance someone could look out their window and see Yusuke cutting away at the harness. "Do not rush me, an artist's hand is-"

"Save your dumb monologue for later!"

"How dare you-" The last bit of leather broke and the harness fell to the ground. Yet the horse continued to stand there. The two opposites looked at each other then back to the horse. Why wasn’t he moving?

“Go on horse! You’re free now boy!” Futaba said. She smacked his rump, and the horse went flying through the streets.

No one saw a thing.

They continued walking through the town, finally ending up on main street. They stopped in a store to buy some salted meat and supplies, or what little supplies Yusuke could afford. They saw three burly drunk men get tossed out into the street from a bar. And they saw cat gnawing on a decapitating mouse. The men and the dead mouse freaked Futaba out a bit, these things didn’t bother him so much, it was life. Drunk men get thrown out of a lot of places; alcohol was the devil's drink. That mouse was dead, and that cat was hungry, why _wouldn’t_ the cat eat it?

“It’s still gross!” She argued.

“I’ve eaten decapitating things before,” he admitted.

“You’re disgusting, Inari,” she spat.

“At least it wasn’t human flesh.”

“Stop. Talking.”

They passed by a skinny kid waving around a newspaper with a bundle of papers next to him. Futaba pulled on his sleeve and pointed at the kid; she wanted a newspaper. He went up, gave the kid a nickel and he got the paper. “Why don’t you do it yourself?” He asked her as he handed the paper to her.

She grabbed the paper and started reading the headline. “You know why!”

It’s true, he did know why. She was a shy girl, apparently, she never had any friends growing up. He knew that her mother passed away, got trampled to death by a runaway carriage, and lived with her uncle for a while. He did not treat her well. If Yusuke ever met that man, he would shoot him in the foot. So, when she ran away to become a part of an outlaw gang, she was very socially inept. They made quite the pair.

He glanced at the paper and his eye caught a smaller article towards the bottom of the page. “Artist sells painting… worth… one hundred?”

“One thousand,” Futaba corrected.

“One thousand dollars. I…”

“Interview.”

“Right. Interview s-”

“Hey! Kid!”

The younger teen tensed up and gripped the paper tighter, keeping her eyes glued to the paper. Yusuke turned to see the three men laughing loudly, was it those same men from the bar? “Can I help you gentlemen?” He asked.

“Gentlemen? Look boys, we got ourselves a sissy!”

“I can assure I am no such thing,” He said. He did not know what ‘sissy’ meant, he assumed it was bad but these were drunken fools who knew nothing about him.

Another one of the men nudged his fellow drunks’ shoulder. “Shhh, he’s retarted!”

That caught Futaba’s attention, she grabbed his arm and tugged as hard as she could. He just turned and she said, loudly, “Don’t listen to them! T-they’re the retarted ones!”

“I don’t know what that means,” he admitted.

“It’s those guys!” She pointed to the drunk men.

He heard the men grumble to one another. Then the third man shouted, “Well of course he’s retarted! He’s traveling with a cripple!”

“What the hell are you doing boy!”

Yusuke didn’t know what came over him. His revolver was pointing at the man who spat the insult. It was one thing to insult him. It was another to insult Futaba, his colleague... his friend?

“Yusuke what are you doing?” Futaba shouted. 

_**BANG!** _

The world froze if not for a moment, one of the men fell to the ground and shouted swears at the teenagers. “You... YOU FUCKING SHOT ME!"

"The hell happened to his ear?"

"Damn brat..."

"Crap, lawmen!”

Everyone was speaking all at once, civilians ran in different directions, going into allies and hiding in stores. Yusuke quickly holstered his gun despite it still smoking. He heard hooves against the brick road, the sounds of lawmen whistles and the soft clink of bullets getting loaded into a revolver. Futaba grabbed his hand and the two started running. Where? Anywhere. Away from here. They needed to hide, but where? They cut between two buildings and he hopped through an open window, pulling Futaba along with him. It was an abandoned building, old furniture rotting away from termites.

“What happened?” He asked her.

“You were going to kill that guy! I couldn’t let you do that!” She whispered back.

“What. Happened.”

“I tried to get you to aim for the sky but… in short the guy is missing an ear,” she explained.

“Maybe people will talk about how _he_ looks.”

“Now isn’t the time for revenge! Here a back door. Let’s go!”

How they managed to make it out of town without being followed he had no idea. They wandered through the plains, the sun beating them down. Futaba refused to speak to him, she kept glancing at that newspaper he got her earlier, how she managed to not lose it he would never know. How neither of them got hurt when lawmen and drunk men were shooting at them, he would never know.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized.

“Why did you do that?” She refused to look up at him.

“I didn’t like what they said about you.”

“I was called a cripple.”

“I don’t know what that means-”

“It’s because I’m short. I’m not a cripple!”

"I thought all goblins were this short."

“I hate you, Inari.”

“I’m not-”

“Wait, is that… Yusuke look,” she said, pointing off to the west.

“Is that the same horse?” It was far off but there was definitely a lone horse in that direction.

“Maybe it isn’t?”

“Ignore it, if it's part of a herd there will be others."

The two kept walking in the grassy plains, the sound of hooves always behind them. Futaba kept looking back every five steps to see if the horse was still there. It was. “I swear this is the same horse. Look at that face!”

He looked back at the horse it was closer to them than before. “Don’t all horses have the same face?”

“You bite your tongue! Go tame it!”

“Why me?”

“You’re tall! Maybe it'll think you're a freaky horse!”

Yusuke sighed and stopped, the horse stopping twenty feet away from them. Slowly Yusuke made his way towards the horse, small steps, his hands in front of him. He meant no harm to it. The horse didn’t back away or run off, it just stood there, unblinking.

When he finally reached the horse, he didn’t know what to do. He just stared at the horses' baby blue eyes and held out his hands. “Pat it’s neck!” Futaba called out.

He did as he was told. “Now what?”

“Now what- get on it!”

He never ridden a horse before, he didn’t even know how to mount one. He assumed it was like getting up on a crate. Yusuke took a few steps back and ran towards the horse and leaped onto it. “Ow…”

"That’s not how you mount a horse! Stupid Inari.”

Well, it didn’t matter he was on it now; he’ll admit it hurt his crotch a bit. “What now?”

“Seriously?” The tiny girl walked up to the horse and up at her friend. “Slide back.”

He did as he was told. Futaba held her hand up to him and it took the teenager a moment to realize what she wanted to do. He grabbed her hand and lifted her onto the horse, right in front of him. “You seriously can’t ride a horse? You’re an outlaw!” She said, grabbing some of the horse’s mane in her hands.

“I always rode with Joker…” he admitted.

“You’re a strange character you know that?”

“So are you.”

The girl rolled her eyes and playfully jabbed her friend in the ribs. “Yah.” The horse started to walk forward.

Yusuke, amazed, asked, “How did you do that?”

“Hmm? It’s not hard, just squeeze gently with your legs,” she explained.

“No, I mean _how_ did you do that?”

“How… I just told you I squeezed with my calves,” she said getting annoyed, “do you mean how I learned it?”

“Yes, that.”

The horse continued to walk forward, and Futaba explained her past in the city. How she learned to ride, who taught her to ride, the first time she rode through the dark city streets alone. “I’ll teach you sometime,” she promised.

“That would be nice.”

“I’ll try to go faster so… I don’t know hold on?”

“Hold onto what-”

“YAH! GO ON BOY!”

The horse started to move faster, and Yusuke wrapped his arms around Futaba’s chest so he wouldn’t fall off the galloping horse.

“WATCH WHERE YOU’RE PUTTING THOSE HANDS INARI!”


	2. Learning to Ride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusuke learns to ride and gives his horse a name.

August 1896

Valentine

The Heartlands

"You're not doing it right!"

It's been a few days since the incident in Blackwater, they managed to get out of the state of West Elizabeth before the wanted posters were put up. Though Yusuke was still ashamed for many of his actions that day. How he almost killed that man. How he became wanted for such a petty action. How he put Futaba in danger. He swore to her that it wouldn't happen again, not like that. To make it up to her he asked if she could teach him how to ride a horse, but the lesson wasn't going as expected.

"I'm doing what you told me," He said. It felt awkward sitting on the horse, though the view was interesting. He watched the stallion flick his ears back and forth, he could hear it breathing, _feel_ it breathing. Despite being around horses most of his life he never felt its heartbeat before, it was-

"Do it better!" Futaba barked. They were on the outskirts of Valentine, off the main road. For an hour Futaba kept trying to get Yusuke to do the leg movements right, but nothing he did seemed to work. "Jesus Christ, Inari! It's not that hard!"

"You aren't a very good teacher," he commented.

She started patting the horse's neck. "Stupid Inari," she whispered.

"Oh, I wasn't expecting to see you here."

The two teens turned to see a familiar face, Makoto and her horse Johanna. Futaba looked like she had an idea, a face Yusuke was starting to learn. "Makoto, you know horses, right?"

"Not as much as a stable hand, but I know a bit," Makoto answered.

"Teach Inari how to ride a horse!" She said, "please?" she added.

The older girl looked at the grey horse. "It'll be easier with a saddle. Come on, I'll buy you a saddle."

Yusuke watched Makoto ride Johanna with ease, he was doing the same thing she was, wasn't he? He slid back and reached down and lifted Futaba onto the horse. He kept his eyes on the girl's legs, watching how she got the horse to more.

The three of them rode into town, the sound of squashing mud could be heard with every step the horses took. Some people came to Makoto and started complimenting her horse, it was a magnificent horse. Smaller than the one Futaba rode, but it had a coat the color of dirt and a dark grey mane. By any artistic sense, this horse should be average, nothing to waste one's words over. But it was the legs that made all the difference. Little black stripes circling the knee area and long hairs that made it stand out from the other horses in its breed.

Yusuke did not know much about horse breeds, which was Futaba's forte. But he knew that Johanna wasn't a wimpy little Morgan, she was a Mustang. And whoever rode her had power meant to be feared and respected. It only made him wonder if his own horse could be seen in that light.

Being led to Valentine Stables the three of them got off their horses and led them inside. A man instantly came running up to Makoto. "Nice horse!" He said.

"My friend here needs a saddle," Makoto responded, ignoring the man's compliment.

The stable hand looked a bit hurt but complied, going towards the back of the stable to get a saddle. While they waited Yusuke pulled out his sketchbook from his satchel and let his eyes wander around the stable. Makoto and Futaba's chatter got drowned out as he tried to capture every little detail. The muddy ground they stood on, the horses in their stables, the birds chirping in the rafters, another stable hand reading a newspaper.

He stopped sketching, staring at the man's newspaper. What did it say? One of the words had to be Valentine, that's where they were. What else? The words were small, or getting smaller? How was that possible? Yusuke was standing if only a few feet away from this stable hand. Words are difficult creatures; he doesn't need to learn how to-

~~"Yusuke-kun."~~

The stable hand was looking at him although Yusuke didn't understand why.

~~"Kitagawa?"~~

Did this man have an issue? If there was to be a confrontation, he would simply say he was admiring the man's physical features, which was a lie, but he would rather have that than admit-

"Yusuke!"

When did the world get so loud? Why was Futaba tugging at his sleeve? The two girls he was with were also staring at him. Why was everyone looking at him all of a sudden?

 ~~"I bought you a saddle,"~~ Makoto said something, he couldn't hear her. Or maybe he chose not to.

"She said she bought us a saddle. Did you go deaf?"

She did? He would have paid for it... if he found a way to scavenge for more money. He watched Makoto put the saddle on his horse, she made it look simple. _Simple. Reading should be simple._

"Hey! The horse needs a name!" Futaba said suddenly.

"Yes. Yes, that is a good idea." His voice felt hoarse, pun completely intended.

Hearing his raspy voice Futaba gave him her canteen. And as he began to drink she started talking, "We could name him Fox, because you _are_ an Inari. But Silver would work nice too. Or maybe Llamrei or Matsukaze!"

~~"You read too many books."~~

"Maybe I wouldn't if you guys let me do jobs!"

~~"We'll talk about this later."~~

"Wait really?"

"I like Goemon," Yusuke said.

Futaba redirected her attention to him. "Goemon? The thief?" She looked at the horse, now fully saddled up. "It fits."

 ~~"Goemon it is~~ then." Oh, he could hear Makoto again. "Come on, I'll show you how to ride."

Makoto thanked the stable hand before leading Johanna out of the stable. Futaba grabs Goemon's reins and leads him outside with Yusuke following them. Futaba handed him the reins and stepped to the side, observing from a safe distance.

"What do I do?" He asked.

"Watch," Makoto told him.

The bounty huntress adjusted Johanna's reins, so they went over the horses' head instead of dangling in front. He copied her actions and looked back at her once he finished. "Good," Makoto said, "now mount up, like so."

Makoto got on her horse in one swift motion. It made him wonder if he'll ever be that good at horse riding one day. The moment he put his foot in the stirrup Makoto stopped him, "You'll hurt the horse that way. Your foot should be facing forwards. And your hip should be next to him."

He tried again, exactly as Makoto told him. Foot facing towards, hip next to the horse, good. As he tried to get up Makoto stopped him again. "Your hand should be in the middle of the saddle. And don't pull yourself up, you'll make it harder for yourself," she explained.

"Let him get on the damn horse!" Futaba butted in.

The older girl sighed and Yusuke made a note of her guidance. He put his hand where Makoto told him to, and got on Goemon. When he grabbed the reins Makoto grunted but didn't say anything, but he mimicked how she held her reins. "Now I press my calf?"

"Squeeze your calves," Futaba corrected. The girl walked past him and got on Johanna, sitting behind Makoto.

"Alright..." He did as he was told to do so many times before, and Goemon began moving forward?

"See? It's much simpler with a saddle," Makoto reminded him.

The feeling was incredible, riding a horse. Actually _riding_ it and not sitting behind Futaba while she did it. "Where should we go?" He asked the girls.

"To the bar!" Futaba cheered.

"No! No bar!" Makoto reprimanded her passenger. "Let's go to the train station, that way you can practice turns and stopping."

"How do I do that?"

"You'll learn."


End file.
